Saturday, October 03, 2009

Apparently some on the right are blowing off the embarrassment of their recent unsuccessful attack against Education Dep. appointee Kevin Jennings because they are starting a new one. The following nonsense (which is better described by the World Net Daily piece) is currently running on several blogs and sites.

Hannity will probably grab it next week:

A transcript from a 1997 speech shows Office of Safe Schools chief Kevin Jennings in the U.S. Department of Education expressed his admiration for Harry Hay, one of the nation's first homosexual activists who launched the Mattachine Society in 1948, founded the Radical Faeries and was a longtime advocate for the North American Man-Boy Love Association, NAMBLA.

"One of the people that's always inspired me is Harry Hay," the transcript shows Jennings saying, "who started the first ongoing gay rights groups in America. In 1948, he tried to get people to join the Mattachine Society. It took him two years to find one other person who would join.

"Well, [in] 1993," Jennings continued, "Harry Hay marched with a million people in Washington, who thought he had a good idea 40 years before."

However, according to Media Matters, the speech had nothing to do with NAMBLA:

Media Matters contends that Jennings was referring to Hay's pioneering work with lgbt rights; something that several obituaries also did when Hay passed on.

What's happening here is innuendo by association. I also admire Harry Hay's work for lgbt rights but I certainly don't like his support of NAMBLA.

So am I a pedophile now?

Many Americans list George Washington as one of the greatest Presidents this country ever had.

But Washington did nothing to stop the slave trade nor did he do anything to get women the vote.

So do the Americans who admire Washington for how he led this country at its founding support slavery and keeping women away from the ballot box?

This entire thing is ridiculous and the root of it is homophobia, pure and simple.

About Me

Alvin McEwen is 46-year-old African-American gay man who resides in Columbia, SC.
McEwen's blog, Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters, and writings have been mentioned by Americablog.com, Goodasyou.org, People for the American Way, PageOneQ.com, The Washington Post, Raw Story, The Advocate, Media Matters for America, Crooksandliars.com, Thinkprogress.org, Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish, Melissa Harris-Perry, The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell, Newsweek, The Daily Beast, The Washington Blade, and Foxnews.com.
In addition, he is also a past contributor to Pam's House Blend,Justice For All, LGBTQ Nation, and Alternet.org. He is a present contributor to the Daily Kos and the Huffington Post,
He is the 2007 recipient of the Harriet Daniels Hancock Volunteer of the Year Award and the 2010 recipient of the Order of the Pink Palmetto from the SC Pride Movement as well as the 2009 recipient of the Audre Lorde/James Baldwin Civil Rights Activist Award from SC Black Pride. In addition, he is a three-time nominee of the Ed Madden Media Advocacy Award from SC Pride.